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Seeing Iraq's Future by Looking at Its Past

(New York Times) - Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan Iraq under Faisal I, who became its king in 1921, was a country whose citizens participated in building the nation, no matter one's denomination or affiliation, whether Shiite or Sunni, Chaldean or Sabaean, Arab or Kurd, Circassian or Turkman. Iraq was the first Arab country to join the League of Nations, and became a model for other emerging nation-states in the Middle East and beyond. The current situation, with an increasingly nervous American and British military force, is a classic example of bad governance. Not only is it being interpreted in Iraq and abroad as a blatant and unnecessary form of neocolonialism, it also threatens to reap a bitter harvest of anti-Americanism. It will further destabilize an already volatile region. My friend Shimon Shamir, the Israeli scholar and former ambassador to Jordan, has wisely urged us to "turn our attention from the threat projected by the extremists to the promise implied by the moderates."
2003-07-18 00:00:00
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